Thanks for the post.

I was really happy to read your mention of “nation building.”

There’s a good reason why other countries should never go “nation building”, especially since for $12 billion a month you jerry-rig together your own group of thugs to oppose another group and all those high-minded promises of a “free and democratic” Iraq get tossed into the dumpster.

Reagan hammered the UN about their attempts at “nation building.”

I think Clusterf*ck Bush is really good at nation destroying. He pays top-dollar, but he certainly is thorough. He’s on his way to destabilizing the entire Middle East.

I think Clusterf*ck Bush is really good at nation destroying. He pays top-dollar, but he certainly is thorough. He’s on his way to destabilizing the entire Middle East.

Just to prepare for the Nov elections, especially all the Congressional races, I prefer to attribute all this Death and Destruction to Republicans in general and not separate out the Shrub Admin. None of madness would be happening with the entire Repube Party cheerleading all these murderous plans, and shouting down any opposition for years now.

Let me guess…McCain just found Iraq on the map and wants to share his great discovery with all of us? Wouldn’t surprise me. Bush was the same way.

Obama is correct. McCain is running for Bush’s 3rd term.

Warm up the teleprompter!

Good morning, pups. It’s [ugh] Kristol, Cohen and Krugman in the NYT. That creature Kristol writes about “The Shape of the Race to Come,” and says in politics, as in life, the grass is always greener on the other side. Many Republicans see the weaknesses of the John McCain campaign, and assume Barack Obama will prevail. Mr. Cohen’s column is titled “A Passage to Tibet,” and he says playing in the major leagues is no breeze and China can no longer pretend to be the unobtrusive power par excellence. Mr. Krugman writes about “Grains Gone Wild” and asks how the food crisis happened. The answer is a combination of long-term trends, bad luck — and bad policy.

http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and the biscuits are out of the oven. I’m not really ready for Monday but there’s nothing I can do to stop it from coming, so I’d better gear up for work. Have a good day.

I think that’s not only fair, but prudent.

I was raised Republican. When Fitzgerald took over the CIA leak investigation, I thought the GOP was going to impeach Cheney and Bush to save the party and install someone before the 2008. Boy was I wrong.

By nature and nurture, McSame is a product of the military industrial complex, so he just does/says/thinks what one would expect from that. And garbles the facts. Tuesday’s Senate hearings should be interesting…anyone think he can ask a coherent question?

LOL!

Morning all…:)

I was thinking ‘Hmmm, that renewing Blackwaters contract might be enough cover for Maliki (if brave enough and Iraki enough!) to push back hard against Bush.
This is really going to make the Iraki ‘government’ pissed and Arab ‘men’ are going to start saying, ‘FU Cheney and Bush,. Our Oil, Our Country. Take your war and go home.’ Can you hear the roar :)
And, if ‘US’ doesn’t, well.. Can you see that debate at the UN/here..
. Nice…….
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the the US State Department had renewed the contract of private security company Blackwater USA without the approval of the Baghdad government.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20.....t_E8gUewgF

I’m in Indonesia, where all I see of the American MSM is CNN International. They’re still running ads for their “USA campaign coverage” that shows Hillary and Obama “battling it out” while McCain is “Off to Fast Start” - when in fact McCain is off to a lying, stumbling, error-prone start. I also see Al Jazeera in English and the BBC and they’re barely better. It seems to me McCain’s lies and evasions are just as transparent and easily researched as Bush or Cheney’s but no one is making the effort. Even internationally they’re all buying into “straight talk” and “war hero” without seeing the mendacious, brainless side. Nice guy to have a barbecue with and definitely “not a warmonger.”

Sun is coming!!! It is beautiful here on the coast this AM but still a little chilly.

After a weekend away from “news” I was shocked, shocked I tell you to hear that “ready from day1″ clinton2 has parted ways with mark penn. Thank goodness there are still plenty of duplicitous bastards on ‘K’ Street to help her out and keep up the standards she is used to.

Condi for VP. A black and a woman ALL IN ONE what more can the Dems ask for.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the the US State Department had renewed the contract of private security company Blackwater USA without the approval of the Baghdad government.

Hey there Maliki that is what you get for attacking the opposition party with only cheenee’s permission a couple of weeks ago. Besides you are going to need blackwater to enforce the rigging of the coming election. Get over it puppets are not supposed to be free.

love it!!!!!

‘Besides you are going to need blackwater to enforce the rigging of the coming election.’
Well actually if this contract IS renewed, I foresee possibilities of more Blackwater folks turning feet up in alleys etc. And, IF Maliki stands with the ‘US’ on this, his own guards may well no-longer have his ‘back’, so to speak…

meant to add. Between a rock and a hard place comes to mind…;)

Mornin’ all!

Buenos Dias!

here’s what’s coming up on Washington Journal:
7:35 am - Gen. Jack Keane (Ret.), Former Army Vice Chief of Staff (1999-2003)

Gen. Keane served in the U.S. Army for 37 years and was Army vice chief of staff from 1999 to 2004. Now retired, Keane presented the surge strategy to President Bush along with Frederick Kagan and visits Iraq periodically as an adviser to Gen. David Petraeus.

.
8:10 am - Frederick Kempe, Atlantic Council of U.S., President

The Council seeks to inform and engage the public with its events and commentaries, while offering special benefits for our members and partners. We welcome media inquiries. The Council is host to experts in a wide range of public policy issues, including U.S. foreign policy, transatlantic relations, NATO, international security, Europe / European Union, Asia, globalization, business and government, energy and environment, domestic political affairs, and education.

.
9:00 am - Peter Prichard, Newseum, President

Today the Washington Journal provides an exclusive look inside the Newseum, a museum of news that presents news history, artifacts, and the issues raised as the delivery of news changes. We’ll explore parts of the new building in Washington, DC, a few days before it opens its doors to the public on Friday, April 11.

Well actually if this contract IS renewed, I foresee possibilities of more Blackwater folks turning feet up in alleys etc.

I have not one whit of sympathy for any of them. If you are willing to murder innocent people in a country illegally occupied then one blackwater death equals one less murderer.

That’s brilliant.

Poetic justice? Karma etc…..Yep.

You should read the WSJ editorial from Leiberman and Graham about the success of the surge. It’s full of the usual bull, like how critics of the surge have been proven wrong. They even put costs in quotation marks, as in, “antiwar forces have adopted a new set of talking points, emphasizing the “costs” of our involvement in Iraq,” as if the word costs was just some figure of speech.

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....mmentaries

emphasizing the “costs” of our involvement in Iraq,” as if the word costs was just some figure of speech.

Let me take you down, ’cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever.

wtf?

i thought s.970 was dead… but apparently it’s been resurrected by the senate finance committee:

10 am - Senate Finance
To hold hearings to examine S. 970, to impose sanctions on Iran and on other countries for assisting Iran in developing a nuclear program.

our problems go so much deeper than bushco. congress is so stupid and irresponsible.

… was just looking through committee hearings scheduled for today, trying to decide if i would put together a weekly list…

“antiwar forces have adopted a new set of talking points, emphasizing the “costs” of our involvement in Iraq,

new?

fuck him.

in my home town we were putting together flyers on this before the fucking war even started.

… was just looking through committee hearings scheduled for today, trying to decide if i would put together a weekly list…

Please, please, please

… was just looking through committee hearings scheduled for today, trying to decide if i would put together a weekly list…

you know I vote “yes please!”

It’s the GOP way.

Party before Country.
Self before Party.

i didn’t wake up in a bad mood, honest!

our problems go so much deeper than bushco. congress is so stupid and irresponsible.

Aint that the truth! Work hard for your NEW congress critters this year. We need more intelli progressives in both Houses or we will be sunk no matter who the prez happens to be.

It’s amusing to see so many go to the trouble of labelling which half of the imperial party McCain comes from as if there were some sort of difference between him and the other two from the other half of the party. Do you really think it matters whether or not the next prez can sort his Shias from his Sunnis? Those decisions around how to keep the chaos in benighted iraq bubbling along are going to be left up to the ME ‘experts’ each candidate took on board along in return big corporate contributions. Obama has Zbig, and Clintoncorp will have one of their corporate raised and paid for foreign policy wonks. I remember last time Zbig was around was just like the last time ClintonCorp was around. That is the foreign policy looked and smelled exactly like the same one Dubya pedals and McCain hopes to.

Why would ClintonCorp have screwed up the sanctions on Iraq to increase the siege of those poor people if it hadn’t been in the back of that presidency’s mind to invade Iraq and steal their oil?

The plan for amerika to steal the ME oil didn’t begin with shrub it has been a long term aim of all the imperial executives since at least 1972 when the first oil crisis impelled those wanting to keep the ‘amerikan way of life sacrosanct’ to do the math on the dwindling domestic supply of oil.

Why else would snaggletooth Carter have frozen all Iranian assets and thereby provoked the hostage crisis if it hadn’t been amerikan policy to only tolerate ‘puppet’ goverments like the Shahs, governments whose unpopular (in their own country) quisling membership agreed to swap their country’s oil for amerikan support to stay in power?

Of course most amerikans realise this deep down but the deal is that politicians allow them a semblance of false honesty by telling the most facile and easily disproven falsehoods eg that they are saving the world by bringing it democracy. As long as the lies are adhered to joe public votes for them feigning ignorance about what they are really voting for.

The spanish did much the same with empire except it wasn’t ‘freedom’ or’democracy’ then it was jesus that was used as a cover for the theft. The english did something similar.

The only difference is that amerika has done it with a system where ostensibly citizens can elect to disbelieve the deceits and go for the truth. In the days of the english empire power was still in the hands of the elites who had been using simalar lies domestically for generations.

But the amerikan empire has ‘democracy’.
In theory amerikans can get rid of all the liars and put in a government that doesn’t steal for them.

Of course they never do, just as they never accept responsibility for what their government does.

It is always the fault of the system, the media, Karl Rove or the republican party, never their fault of those placidly lapping up the obvious bullshit.

If the other half of the imperial party gets in this time, Iraqis will die in just as great a number as they did under shrub, so why all the fuss?

It seems to me that amerikans hope that some of the ill gotten gains will be spread to the population at large and not just Halliburton shareholders. What does that say about dem voters?

I know amerikans will think this unfair, but really considering that in the decade plus (including the inhumane sanctions regime) amerikans have been killing Iraqis, the most that any amerikans have done about it is whine and complain. Post to blogs as if talking about it brings dead Iraqis back to life. There has been no effective direct action against the murderers by the populace from within amerika.
No one even hunts down those who have been proven to have murdered innocent Iraqis but who have been let off by the military.
So how can anyone imagine that they are not complicit.

I always remember this 60 Minutes piece from around the time of the invasion into Iraq. Richard Armitage was saying that the cost of the war would be paid for by Iraq, with American companies profiting from that, and that was how it should be.

60 Minutes was, I think, the lone skeptical voice in the MSM about the Iraq war. It’s worth digging this stuff up, once in a while, just to remind everybody that it was a bunch of bad ideas that got us into this mess, not just bad luck.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories.....rchStories

because if the difference is between killing 1 million iraqis and killing half a million - that’s still an important choice… especially for the half million iraqis who’s lives may depend on it.

nomolos and elliot - for you, i will do it. will be back to let you know when the list for this week is up.

Here’s some more on the “costs” of the “war” in “Iraq”

http://commentisfree.guardian......o_low.html

Post to blogs as if talking about it brings dead Iraqis back to life.

And you are doing what?

The plan for amerika to steal the ME oil didn’t begin with shrub it has been a long term aim of all the imperial executives since at least 1972 when the first oil crisis impelled those wanting to keep the ‘amerikan way of life sacrosanct’ to do the math on the dwindling domestic supply of oil.

Oh it goes way further back than that. Back to the first oil wells in the ME. During the first “world war” the powers that be found that running out of petrol was not good if you wanted to continue invading other countries.

You are a saint.

Amen.

just the opposite - and have lots of amends to make for past deeds.

“Besides you are going to need blackwater to enforce the rigging of the coming election.”

Both there and here.

There is NO WAY the press will handle this properly. Lara Logan, an otherwise decent enough reporter on the ground in Iraq, is using the GOP talking points on the whole dustup. She refers to Sadr’s Mehdi army as “Iranian backed” while conveniently NOT referring to the Maliki government and its favored Badr Brigades as even more “Iranian backed”. Sadr is a lackey of Iran but the Badr’s are good guys, almost “merikan”. What a pantload.

I despise the US press in general. They really do suck in the US.

Attaturk…just curious. Did you really post this as 2 freakin 02 a.m.?

nomolos and elliot - almost a hundred hearings scheduled for this week. enjoy.

Why do “We The People” allow the media, via OUR airwaves, to lie to us?